In 1927, while en route to art collector Katherine Dreier's house, the artwork called 'The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even' - otherwise known as 'Large Glass' because it consists of two panes of glass stacked vertically and framed - cracked spectacularly.
The creator of the piece, Marcel Duchamp, was thrilled with the accidental cracking on a project he'd worked on for eight years.
He had thought of his work as "definitively unfinished", but believed the crack completed it in a way he never could have.
Artist Liza Grobler approached her first site-specific installation in Johannesburg in a similar vein. The Seven Looms is currently on display at The Trumpet Building at the Keyes Art Mile. During its two months in the space, the work will stretch, move and change. It won't be the same at the end of the process as it is now.
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"I'm interested in how the completed work is still a part of the process. Because of gravity, the people in the space, the time of the day and the lighting, it's never the same," says Grobler.
The work consists of seven massive looms hanging from the ceiling of the atrium of the building. They're made with local mohair and cotton, and specially imported Italian merino wool that's also used in the jackets of the newest Trenery fashion collection. (Trenery commissioned the work.)
It took Grobler, her assistant Nienke de Wet and four others four days to hand-weave the natural fibres in the artwork, which is made of shades of white. Known for her use of strong colour, this is first time Grobler has created a space in white.
• The work is on display in the atrium of the Trumpet Building, 21 Keyes Avenue or see Grobler's solo exhibition, 'Maybe Time Can Fold' at Circa in Cape Town.
• This article was originally published in The Times.
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